The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Input for user interface text boxes is frequently longer than what is able to be displayed within the box. For example, a complete address including number, street, city, zip code, etc., that is entered in an input box for a user interface of a digital mapping application is usually too long to be displayed fully within the input box. Typically, a fixed-width text input box hides the first-input characters of any text entry as the total number of characters in the box reaches the maximum size or width of the box. By scrolling the text as the user inputs a long address, the user is only able to see the last input characters. Scrolling the entered text limits the user's view to only the last entered text characters. User may then select the text and scroll to various, earlier-entered portions that are now hidden, but such action forces the user to hunt through the entire entry, one character at a time. It is impossible for a user to immediately discern how long any entry is unless he or she scrolls through the entire entry and, even then, the user is only able to see a section of text that is as long as the fixed-width text entry box. Thus, a user cannot easily view the beginning of an entry or other parts of the entry before finishing and entering the text.
Other text boxes resolve one or more entries into objects or “chips” that may be used as input to other elements and functions of a user interface. For example, a text box for a mapping application may include an “origin” entry and a “destination” entry that are resolved to objects that may be selected and dragged to other input areas of a user interface. Entry into text boxes that include multiple entries may be even more crowded as a first entry may crowd the area for the second entry.